"With this action, I think the people of Rota will be re-assessing their status. We feel that we are the bastard children of the commonwealth. This is not good," Manglona said.

The mayor said that the lawmakers appear to be "chasing us away" and may serve as a reason for the people of Rota to reconsider whether the CNMI is "the rightful place" for them.

Asked to elaborate, Manglona replied, "You know, there’s always the temptation to join Guam. Rota is the closest neighbor of Guam. I’m not advocating that, but I hope this arrangement we’re experiencing today will not be a message for the people of Rota that (they are being mistreated here)."

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Oct. 1) - An understanding has been reached between the Papua New Guinea Communication Workers Union and the Independent Public Business Corporation over the partial sale of Telokom PNG Ltd., according to IPBC managing director Masket Iangalio.

Mr Iangalio said in a press statement yesterday evening that five meetings had been held so far with the PNGCWU and a further meeting has been scheduled at 10am today morning.

In a letter issued to the union earlier, Mr Iangalio said that there would be no redundancies because of the partial sale and more jobs would be created.

He also said that employee equity participation date had lapsed and issues like home ownership scheme, suspension of loan payout, concessional taxation packages and a late expression of interest were internal Telikom agreements.

He said that the sale of Telikom was different from that of PNGBC where many employees...

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Oct. 1) - RD Tuna Canners is developing an irrigated six-hectare pilot rice farm at Kananam village in Madang to find out if the crop could be commercially grown in the area.

Supervising Filipino agriculturist Eddie Tejano said if successful, the area would be expanded to 80-100 hectares, providing another source of high-quality but cheap rice for the province and also future farm jobs to villagers.

The farm is located on a 860-hectare property in Kananam owned by RD Tuna.

A team of Kananam villagers is working closely with another Filipino rice expert, Joseph Duco, to prepare the land for planting with high-yield rice varieties developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines.

IRRI is an international research organization that has been developing new high-yielding rice varieties for propagation in developing countries.

The status would allow Chinese tourists, students and business people to visit Guam. Camacho hopes to secure the special status and then gain a visa waiver from the United States on travel from China to Guam to build up the island's tourism industry.

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Oct. 1) – The Papua New Guinea government has improved the management of state-owned enterprises by setting a maximum salary of K350,000 for management, Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare said in Parliament yesterday.

Sir Michael said the government has improved the management of the enterprises without hiring any foreign consultants.

He said they have not taken in any special consultants compared to the previous government, which paid K87 million to consultants.

He said they have re-organized the privatization from full sale of assets to the partial sale of the non-core assets that are on the market.

He said he was confident they would meet shortfalls in revenue for the budget by the end of the year.

He said the government collected K60 million in dividends in the past two weeks from the sale of non-core assets after the improvements to the once non-profitable State corporations.

PAPEETE, Tahiti (Tahitipresse, Sept. 29) - An Air New Zealand Boeing 767-300 aircraft was chartered on Sept. 27 for 130 passengers stranded in Tahiti by a strike against New Caledonia airline AirCalin.

It was the first of two chartered flights necessary to return the passengers to Nouméa.

The passengers became stranded when AirCalin cancelled a Sept. 27 flight from Nouméa to Papeete due to the strike by navigation personnel, said Pascal Redon, AirCalin’s regional representative in French Polynesia.

The Air New Zealand flight left Tahiti at 8:05 p.m., less than an hour later than AirCalin’s normally scheduled Saturday night departure of 7:45 p.m.

"AirCalin decided to assure its Papeete-Nouméa flight by chartering an Air New Zealand Boeing," Redon said. "It arrived at 7:05 pm on the Tahiti-Faa’a International Airport runway. It left an hour later."

Although the chartered flight left Tahiti less than an hour later than the regularly scheduled non-...

GWA management, Consolidated Commission on Utilities members and lawmakers attended the special meeting, which was designed to provide southern residents with answers about why they've had so many water problems in the last few months.

Several of the residents -- from the villages of Merizo, Umatac and Inarajan -- demanded answers to their water problems.

"You are endangering our lives because when there is no water in the pipes, contamination will be there. We don't have water to wash our face, to wash our kids," yelled an irate Ben Meno, a resident of Inarajan. "We have to spend more money to boil water, we have to spend more money to buy soda and beer and drinks because we have no water. All I'm asking for is the water...

MELBOURNE, Australia (Radio Australia, Oct. 1) - A new laboratory at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji can now test for viruses causing diseases in one of the major Pacific Island root crops, taro.

The testing is the result of a collaborative effort involving scientists from two universities, the South Pacific Community's Plant Protection Service, the European Union and AusAID.

The new laboratory is at the Institute of Applied Science at the University of the South Pacific's Laucala Campus in Suva.

The testing has been developed by a team from the Queensland University of Technology which has been working of the problem for four years.

Associate Professor Rob Harding of the QUT's Plant Biotechnology Program says transferring the technology into the Pacific was one of the aims.

"We are at the stage now where we have characterized five viruses infecting taro; we've developed some very sensitive and specific diagnostic tests for those...

In a 13-page decision, the court said Article VIII, Section 11 of Koror’s state constitution is "not self executing" and that the rules and regulations for the recall election on Oct. 8 are invalid.

The court said the recall provision of Palau’s national constitution "does not even offer a starting point for interpretation."

The constitution’s provision that "the electorate may recall an elected member of the Legislature pursuant to law" does not offer any clue either as to what percentage of voters must sign a recall petition or what percentage must vote in favor of the recall.

On Aug. 15, the members of the Election Commission — Santos Borja, Gregorio Decherong, Sally Techitong Soalablai and Baudista Rengulbai — were presented with a petition for the recall of Koror legislator Ngiratecheboet...

WAILUKU, Maui (The Maui News) - With lavish mansions, beachfront condos and cookie-cutter subdivisions shooting up all over Maui, a building boom of a different nature was quietly being revived at the Maui Nui Botanical Gardens this weekend.

Instead of manufactured framing and nails, the construction workers used ocean-cured ironwood logs and tight lashings. Rather than blue tiles, they thatched the roof with the leaves of loulu palms.

It was the final exam for the first official class of certified hale builders in Hawaii - and it was easy to tell from all the excitement surrounding the event that there was more than just a structure being raised.

"I believe this is as historical as the Hokule'a first touching water," said Francis Palani Sinenci of Hana, the state's most experienced master hale builder, as he watched his small group of students saw, pound, cut and tie in tandem.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.